Control means for copy sheet feeding and moistening means in address printing machines

ABSTRACT

A spirit transfer printing machine has a drive shaft for rollers which pass a copy sheet from a receiving station through a printing station, the sheet being initially held at the receiving station by retractable positive stops. A countershaft driven by the drive shaft simultaneously actuates a moistener for a selected area of the sheet and a mechanism for superposing a master card on the moistened area for printing at the printing station. An adjustable drive mechanism between the countershaft and the drive shaft enables actuation of the moistener and card superposing mechanism to be preadjusted relative to feeding of the copy sheet so that moistening and superposition of the master card occur at an adjustably selected area of the sheet.

Shepher [45] Feb. 8, 1972 [541 CONTROL MEANS FOR CGPY SHEET 2,132,282 10/1938 Ajouelo ..101/48 FEEDING AND MOISTENING MEANS IN 2,247,134 6/ 1941 Roethe ..101/ 132.5 ADDRESS PRINTING MA INE 2,542,443 2/1951 Weber lOl/132.5 X CH S 3,230,871 l/l966 Kooch et al lOl/53 [72] Inventor: George E. Shepherd, 51 Pasteur St., Dol- 3,245,342 4/1966 Wright 101/ l 32.5 lard Des Ormeaux, Quebec, Canada 3,420,162 l/ 1969 Shepherd ..101 53 [22] Filed: Apr. ls 1969 3,444,807 5/1969 Kooch ..101/53 [21] APPLNO.; 817,310 Primary Examiner-William B. Penn Attorney-Fetherstonhaugh & Co.

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data [57] ABSTRACT Mar. 3, 1969 Canada 044,513 A spirit transfer printing machine has a drive shaft for rollers which pass a copy sheet from a receiving station through a [52] U.S. Cl ..101/53, 101/ 132.5 printing station, the sheet being initially held at the receiving [51] Int. Cl. .B41l47/24, B411 47/46, B411 l l/O2 Station by retractable positive stops. A countershaft driven by [58] Field of Search ..101/49, 51, 4s, 52, 53, 47, the drive shaft Simultaneously actuates a moistener for a lOl/65, 132.5, 132 selected area of the sheet and a mechanism for superposing a master card on the moistened area for printing at the printing [56] References Cited station. An adjustable drive mechanism between the countershaft and the drive shaft enables actuation of the moistener UNITED STATES PATENTS and card superposing mechanism to be preadj usted relative to feeding of the copy sheet so that moistening and superposition Elliott of the master card occur at an adjustably Selected area of the 1,822,344 9/1931 Sheet. 1,916,564 7/1933 2,054,344 9/1936 6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures www@ me M0215 SHEET UF 3 INVENTOR George E. SHEPHERD ATTORNEYS PATENTEU FEB am?? SHEET E 0F 3 INVENTOR George E. SHEPHERD A T'T'nD AIF VC BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In known addressing machines, electrical power is used to align the leading edge of a paper sheet to be addressed, or the nip between the first feed roller and a pressure roller spring urged thereagainst is used for this purpose. The latter arrangement, while eliminating the need for electrical power, is unsatisfactory in that if the feed roller is not stopped in exactly the correct position after feeding a sheet through the machine, the next sheet may have the address printed thereon in the wrong position. Moreover, it is difficult to align the sheet correctly using a nip.

It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide improved alignment and drive means and to correlate such means with the moistening roller and the address card feeding means, providing for simultaneous adjustment of the roller and card feed means relative to the drive means to so that the proper relationship between the various parts of the machine to give correct moistening and printing can be achieved.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a hand operated machine comprising a main drive shaft, means for rotating the drive shaft by hand, means for indicating when the drive shaft has completed one revolution from a starting position, feed rollers rotated by the drive shaft for feeding a sheet of paper through the machine as the drive shaft is rotated one revolution, a paper moistening roller, means connected via transmission means with the drive shaft for bringing the moistening roller into and out of contact with a sheet of paper passing through the machine, means also connected via transmission means with the main drive shaft for feeding one master address card at a time through the machine, means for simultaneously adjusting the last two mentioned means relative to the drive shaft, stop fingers biased into the path of the paper sheet but retractable in response to rotation of the drive shaft away from its starting position, pressure roller means eooperable with the initial feed roller to initiate feeding of the sheet of paper through the machine, said pressure roller means being normally urged toward the feed roller, and means associated with the drive shaft for holding the pressure roller means away from the feed roller when the drive shaft is in its starting position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. l is a side view of the hand crank side of the addressing machine;

FIG. 2 is a partial side view of the opposite side of the machine;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of the paper sheet input end of the machine; and

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing the working parts of FIG. I with greater clarity.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT The machine illustrated has a main drive shaft 1 rotated by means of hand crank 2 and having mounted thereon a cam 3 with a stop face 4 which engages a pin 5 in the starting position of the shaft 1 and at the end of each revolution thereof. The pin is mounted on one end of an arm 6 which is pivoted at its other end at 7 and is urged upwardly about the pivot by spring 8. Thus the operator of the machine will have an indication by feel when each revolution of the shaft has been completed.

A series of feed rollers 9, 10, 11 are driven from the drive shaft l via sprocket l2 and chain I3 which engages sprockets I4, I 16 on rollers 9, 10, ll, respectively. An adjustable sprocket 17 is also provided, for tensioning the chain.

A sprocket 18 (FIG. 2), which is mounted freely on a shaft 19, is driven from the shaft 1 by means of a second sprocket 20 on the shaft l and a chain 21, another tensioning sprocket 22 being provided for this chain. The sprocket 18 and the shaft 19 have attached thereto, for rotation therewith, clutch members 23 and 24 (FIG. 3), the member 24 being slidably mounted on the shaft 19 but biased into engagement with the member 23 by the spring 25. A knob 26, associated with member 24, is biased inwardly by the spring 25 but may be pulled outwardly to disengage member 24 from member 23, whereupon manual rotation of the knob will alter the position of shaft 19 relative to sprocket 18 and hence relative to drive shaft l. The address card feed means and the means for moving the moistening roller into operative position are mounted on the shaft 19 and, therefore, the timing of the card feed and moistening roller operation may be adjusted simultaneously relative to the drive shaft 1. These means will now be described.

The card feed means comprise a crank disc 27, mounted on shaft 19, a card feeding blade 28, reciprocable in the bottom of a card hopper 29, and a drive arm 30 connected to the disc 27 by a pivot pin 31 and to the blade by a pivot pin 32. The hopper 29, of course, has a single card exit opening 33 at its lowest comer.

The moistening roller 34 is mounted in a tray 35 and has a wick 36 urged thereagainst by a spring 37. The wick extends into theV tray through a suitable conduit (not shown) from a container 38 adapted to receive the mouth of an inverted bottle 39 from which a fluid such as methanol or spirit duplicating fluid leaks past a ball 40 to moisten the wick. The tray 35 is pivotally mounted at 41 and is spring urged upwardly to the position shown in FIG. l by a suitable spring 42. As the drive shaft 1 is rotated, however, a cam 43 on the shaft I9 engages a roller 44 on the tray to depress the tray and bring the moistening roller into contact with a sheet of paper passing over roller 9, at a set position to that the moistened area of the sheet will register with the master card fed through the exit opening 33, as both the master card and the sheet are fed together through the rollers 11 and 61, whereby the impression on the master card is transferred to the moistened area of the sheet.

The feed roller 9 consists of a plurality of small roller sections spaced along the shaft 45 and stop fingers 46 project between these sections from a shaft 47 to terminate in upturned end portions 48. A pressure roller 49, which also may be in the form of small sections at either end of the moistening roller, mounted on arms 50 which are mounted on a shaft 5I and are connected with an arm 52 (FIG. 2) which carries a roller 53 at its upper end. The arm 52 is biased downwardly by a spring 54 but is urged upwardly by a cam 55, connected to the sprocket 18, when the drive shaft l is in its starting position. An arm 56, mounted on the shaft 47, is biased upwardly by a spring 57 into engagement with a plunger 58 adjustably mounted on the arm S2. Thus, on movement of the drive shaft l from its starting position, the cam 55 will leave roller 53, allowing `spring 54 to lower arm 52, arms 50 and pressure roller 49 to bring the latter into contact with a sheet of paper whose leading edge has previously been introduced by hand between the rollers 9 and 49 and into contact with the ends 48 of fingers 46 tn correctly align the sheet. At the same time as the roller 49 is lowered, the plunger 58 depresses the arm 56 and hence also the fingers 46 and the paper sheet is thus free to be fed through the machine. At the end of one turn of the handle 2, of course, the drive shaft l will be back in starting position and the roller 49 will be raised and the stop fingers in their upper position whereby a further sheet of paper may be fed by hand from the magazine 59 to abut with its leading edge against the finger ends 48.

It will be obvious that, since the cam 55 rotates with sprocket 18 which is driven from drive shaft l, the initiation of paper feed through the machine is fixed with respect to the drive shaft il and adjustment of card feed and moistening roller operation relative to drive shaft 1, therefore, results in adjustment thereof relative to paper feed. Thus, manual adjustment of the knob 26 provides for selective positioning of the address relative to the leading edge of the sheet.

A downwardly spring-urged roller 60 cooperates with feed roller to assist in feeding the paper through the machine and the addressing of the paper is effected between feed roller 11 and a roller 6l which is urged toward roller 11 by spring 62. The sheets of paper, after passing over roller 11, are deposited in a lower receptacle 63, whereas the cards are fed by rollers 64, 65 to an upper receptacle 66. The roller 64 is urged toward roller 65 by a leaf spring 67 and the roller 65 is driven by flexible belts or chain 68 and a pulley 69 mounted on the same shaft as roller 11.

Whatl claim as my invention is:

l. ln a machine for spirit transfer printing of a moistened area of a copy sheet by a master card which is superposed on the moistened area during printing; the combination of a copy-sheet-receiving station, a printing station, a rotatable drive shaft, means for indexing rotation of said drive shaft at one revolution intervals, feed rollers driven by said drive shaft for passing a copy sheet from the receiving station through the printing station during one revolution of the drive shaft, a rotatable countershaft, moistening means mounted on said countershaft and actuated thereby for moistening a selected area of a copy sheet during its passage from the receiving station to the printing station, further means on said countershaft and conj ointly actuated thereby for superposing a master card on the selected area of the sheet following moistening the and during passage of said sheet from the receiving station to the printing station, retractable positive stop means for holding a sheet at the receiving station, means actuated by said drive shaft for retracting said stop means when rotation of the drive shaft is initiated and for projecting the stop means when one revolution of the drive shaft is completed, and an adjustable drive mechanism between said drive shaft and said countershaft whereby actuation of said moistening means and of said card superposing mean may be preadjusted relative to retraction of said stop means and resultant feeding of a copy sheet from the receiving station to the printing station so that sheet moistening ans superposition of a master card occur at an adjustably selected area of the sheet.

2. The device as defined in claim l wherein said feed rollers include a pressure roller biased to a sheet engaging position at said receiving station, and means actuated by said drive shaft for moving said pressure roller to a disengaged position when said stop means are projected.

3. The device as defined in claim l wherein said drive shaft is manually rotatable and said indexing means comprise a cam secured to the drive shaft and provided with a stop face, and a stop pin resiliently biased against said cam to provide resistance to movement of said stop face past said pin.

4. The device as dened in claim l wherein said moistening means include a pivotally mounted tray, a moistening roller carried by said tray, and means operatively connecting said tray to said countershaft whereby pivotal movement of the tray during rotation of the countershaft may bring said moistening roller in and out of engagement with a selected area of a copy sheet.

5. The device as defined in claim l wherein said master card superposing means include a card hopper having a single card exit, a reciprocable blade for feeding a card through said hopper exit, and means operatively connecting said blade to said countershaft.

6. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said adjustable drive mechanism comprises a pair of coacting clutch members positioned on said countershaft, one of said clutch members being rotatable with the countershaft, the other clutch member being rotatable on the countershaft and drive by said drive shaft, one of the clutch members being slidable on the countershaft relative to the other, resilient means biasing said clutch members into driving engagement, and manually actuated means for disengaging the clutch members against the action of said biasing means whereby the clutch members may be rotationally adj usted*relaitiv to facil other. 

1. In a machine for spirit transfer printing of a moistened area of a copy sheet by a master card which is superposed on the moistened area during printing; the combination of a copy-sheetreceiving station, a printing station, a rotatable drive shaft, means for indexing rotation of said drive shaft at one revolution intervals, feed rollers driven by said drive shaft for passing a copy sheet from the receiving station through the printing station during one revolution of the drive shaft, a rotatable countershaft, moistening means mounted on said countershaft and actuated thereby for moistening a selected area of a copy sheet during its passage from the receiving station to the printing station, further means on said countershaft and conjointly actuated thereby for superposing a master card on the selected area of the sheet following moistening the and during passage of said sheet from the receiving station to the printing station, retractable positive stop means for holding a sheet at the receiving station, means actuated by said drive shaft for retracting said stop means when rotation of the drive shaft is initiated and for projecting the stop means when one revolution of the drive shaft is completed, and an adjustable drive mechanism between said drive shaft and said countershaft whereby actuation of said moistening means and of said card superposing mean may be preadjusted relative to retraction of said stop means and resultant feeding of a copy sheet from the receiving station to the printing station so that sheet moistening and superposition of a master card occur at an adjustably selected area of the sheet.
 2. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said feed rollers include a pressure roller biased to a Sheet engaging position at said receiving station, and means actuated by said drive shaft for moving said pressure roller to a disengaged position when said stop means are projected.
 3. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said drive shaft is manually rotatable and said indexing means comprise a cam secured to the drive shaft and provided with a stop face, and a stop pin resiliently biased against said cam to provide resistance to movement of said stop face past said pin.
 4. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said moistening means include a pivotally mounted tray, a moistening roller carried by said tray, and means operatively connecting said tray to said countershaft whereby pivotal movement of the tray during rotation of the countershaft may bring said moistening roller in and out of engagement with a selected area of a copy sheet.
 5. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said master card superposing means include a card hopper having a single card exit, a reciprocable blade for feeding a card through said hopper exit, and means operatively connecting said blade to said countershaft.
 6. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said adjustable drive mechanism comprises a pair of coacting clutch members positioned on said countershaft, one of said clutch members being rotatable with the countershaft, the other clutch member being rotatable on the countershaft and drive by said drive shaft, one of the clutch members being slidable on the countershaft relative to the other, resilient means biasing said clutch members into driving engagement, and manually actuated means for disengaging the clutch members against the action of said biasing means whereby the clutch members may be rotationally adjusted relative to each other. 